Climate change adaptation in mixed crop–livestock systems in developing countries

Thornton, Philip K.; Herrero, Mario

doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2014.02.002

Cited by 142 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…First, from a technical perspective, there appear to exist no "silver bullets" for achieving climate-smart mixed systems. While this echoes the conclusions of the semi-quantitative analysis in Thornton and Herrero (2014), here we looked at a much wider range of possible interventions than was done there. Triple wins undoubtedly exist, but technical recommendations over broad domains that will work in all or even most circumstances may not be appropriate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

A Qualitative Evaluation of CSA Options in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in Developing Countries

Thornton

Rosenstock

Förch³

et al. 2017

Natural Resource Management and Policy

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The mixed crop-livestock systems of the developing world will become increasingly important for meeting the food security challenges of the coming decades. The synergies and trade-offs between food security, adaptation, and mitigation objectives are not well studied, however. Comprehensive evaluations of the costs and benefits, and the synergies and trade-offs, of different options in developing-country mixed systems do not exist as yet.Here we summarise what we know about the climate smartness of different alternatives in the mixed croplivestock systems in developing countries, based on published literature supplemented by a survey of experts. We discuss constraints to the uptake of different interventions and the potential for their adoption, and highlight some of the technical and policy implications of current knowledge and knowledge gaps.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

A Qualitative Evaluation of CSA Options in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in Developing Countries

Thornton

Rosenstock

Förch³

et al. 2017

Natural Resource Management and Policy

Self Cite

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“…Many risk management and diversification strategies are not new to African households who have traditionally dealt with climate variability through, for example, (seasonal) migration, combining multiple crops and or cultivars, diversifying livestock herds, and utilizing the complementarities between crop cultivation, livestock and trees (Thornton and Herrero 2014). Farmers can adapt to shorter and more variable growing seasons by choosing drought resistant or shorter maturing crops and varieties and adjusting planting dates (Niang et al 2014).…”

Section: Adaptation Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increasing demands for food will have to be met under the additional challenge of climate change, which will strongly impact agriculture. Smallholder crop-livestock systems are vulnerable to climate change and must adapt to maintain or improve productivity and its stability (Müller 2013;Thornton and Herrero 2014). Besides being vulnerable, smallholder crop-livestock systems are held responsible for large greenhouse gas emissions, but could play a role in the mitigation of these emissions Gerber et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The constraints to adoption of climate adaptation and mitigation options are mostly discussed in general, qualitative terms (e.g. Thornton and Herrero 2014). Few impact studies take the limited adoption by smallholder farmers into account in their assessment of the adaptation and mitigation capacity, thus overestimating the potential impact [a useful exception is ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change adaptation and mitigation in smallholder crop–livestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa: a call for integrated impact assessments

et al. 2016

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African mixed crop-livestock systems are vulnerable to climate change and need to adapt in order to improve productivity and sustain people's livelihoods. These smallholder systems are characterized by high greenhouse gas emission rates, but could play a role in their mitigation. Although the impact of climate change is projected to be large, many uncertainties persist, in particular with respect to impacts on livestock and grazing components, whole-farm dynamics and heterogeneous farm populations. We summarize the current understanding on impacts and vulnerability and highlight key knowledge gaps for the separate system components and the mixed farming systems as a whole. Numerous adaptation and mitigation options exist for crop-livestock systems. We provide an overview by distinguishing risk management, diversification and sustainable intensification strategies, and by focusing on the contribution to the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture. Despite the potential solutions, smallholders face major constraints at various scales, including small farm sizes, the lack of response to the proposed measures and the multi-functionality of the livestock herd. Major institutional barriers include poor access to markets and relevant knowledge, land tenure insecurity and the common property status of most grazing resources. These limit the adoption potential and hence the potential impact on resilience and mitigation. In order to effectively inform decision-making, we therefore call for integrated, system-oriented impact assessments and a realistic consideration of the adoption constraints in smallholder systems. Building on agricultural system model development, integrated impact assessments and scenario analyses can inform the co-design and implementation of adaptation and mitigation strategies.F

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“…There is an emerging consensus that climate variability and extreme weather events are among the major risk factors affecting agricultural production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa [1][2][3][4]. The effect is particularly pronounced in the rural households of developing countries, such as Ethiopia, where the capacity to cope off the adverse effect is low [2,5].…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessment of Household Food Security in the Face of Climate Change and Variability in the Upper Blue-Nile of Ethiopia

Amare¹,

Simane²

2017

JAST-B

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It is widely recognized that climate variability and frequent droughts resulting from El-Nino phenomenon are among the major risk factors affecting agricultural production that might contribute to hunger and food insecurity in East Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. The objectives of the present study were to examine the food security status and determinants of household food security among 442 randomly selected households in the Muger sub-basin of the Blue-Nile basin using household survey, focus group discussion (FGD) and key informant interview data collection methods. Both descriptive statistics (mean, chi-square test and t-test) and binary logit econometric model were used to analyze the data. The results showed that 57.8% of the households are food secure, while the remaining 42.2% of the households are food insecure. The binary logit regression results revealed that adoption of soil conservation, small-scale irrigation and employing different agronomic practices are important factors influencing household food security. Moreover, land holding and livestock ownership positively and significantly affected household's food security. The results further showed that family size and distance to the nearest market are important factors affecting food security in the inverse direction. The results highlighted careful investments on sustainable land management practices and small-scale irrigation that reduced sensitivity and increased the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to the adverse effect of climate change and variability. This study further highlighted the significance of livestock ownership and landholding in attaining food security under changing climate. The findings call for action based on advocacy family planning to curb population growth and invest in creating functional value-chain that help farmers' viable market for their produces.

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Climate change adaptation in mixed crop–livestock systems in developing countries

Cited by 142 publications

References 39 publications

A Qualitative Evaluation of CSA Options in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in Developing Countries

A Qualitative Evaluation of CSA Options in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in Developing Countries

Climate change adaptation and mitigation in smallholder crop–livestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa: a call for integrated impact assessments

Assessment of Household Food Security in the Face of Climate Change and Variability in the Upper Blue-Nile of Ethiopia

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